Just a few weeks ago, the Greek press briefing after major EU meetings was the hottest ticket in town. Scores of ink-stained wretches, your Real Time Brussels correspondent among them, would show up early for a seat around a long table that could have served banquets at Camelot.

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Nicolar Bouvy/EPA

Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou addressed the media during the Ecofin council meeting in Luxembourg on Wednesday.

At the head sat Prime Minister George Papandreou or Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou, who would spend more than an hour parrying scores of questions, camera shutters a-fluttering with each photogenic gesticulation.

Today in Luxembourg, Mr. Papaconstantinou presided over a room no bigger than a squash court (an American one at that), thoughtfully upholstered floor to ceiling with rectangles of synthetic-fiber industrial carpet in a morose gray. A dozen or so reporters showed up.

He was pleased. Relaxed, even.

“The first time in eight months that Greece was not on the agenda of the Eurogroup!” he said. The European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund had some words — “positive” ones, Mr. Papaconstantinou said — about Greece, but mostly the discussion among ministers in Luxembourg was elsewhere.

The €110 billion bailout, approved last month, has taken a huge financial weight off of Greece’s shoulders. It’s also diverted, somewhat, the harsh glare that comes with being Europe’s poster child for fiscal imprudence.

Mr. Papaconstantinou told reporters his country’s searing budget measures were “on track.” He said Greece would sell more Treasury bills in July, as expected. He slipped in a suggestion that formal assessment of a country’s fiscal health should include analysis of “both public and private debt.” Greece has tons of the former but, compared to its euro-zone fellows, less of the latter.

He even gave a pat on the back to Portugal and Spain, saying of Iberian duo’s bid to avoid becoming the next Greece that “the effort that is necessary is being done.”

About Real Time Brussels

The Wall Street Journal’s Brussels blog is produced by the Brussels bureau of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires. The bureau has been headed since 2009 by Stephen Fidler, who was previously a correspondent and editor for the Financial Times and Reuters. Also posting regularly: Matthew Dalton, Viktoria Dendrinou, Tom Fairless, Naftali Bendavid, Laurence Norman, Gabriele Steinhauser and Valentina Pop.